Mid-Pentecost / Great Martyr George

Vespers: Priest: Blessed is our God. Reader: Amen. Christ is risen x3.

Psalm 103 is read. Blessed is the Man.

Lord I have Cried, Tone 4, on 6: Feast (Mid-Pentecost) 3 (There is come now the middle of those days); Great Martyr 3 (As one valiant among the martyrs); G: Great Martyr (Thou didst live thy life in accordance with thy name); N: Feast (As we come together on the Mid-feast).

Entry; O Gladsome Light; Tone 1: Thy mercy, O Lord, shall pursue me.

3 Readings for the Feast & 3 Readings for the Great Martyr.

Aposticha: Feast (The mid-point of the days of Pentecost is come); G: Great Martyr (O brethren, let us spiritually praise); N: Feast (When Thou wast teaching at Mid-feast, O Savior).

Troparia: Great Martyr (As a liberator of captives); G/N: Feast (In the midst of the feast).

Resurrectional Dismissal.

Matins: Priest: Glory to the holy, and consubstantial, and life-creating, and indivisible Trinity…

Choir: Amen. Christ is risen x3 (Sung slowly). While this is being sung, the priest censes the altar and the entire Church.

Reader: Glory to God in the highest; and the 6 psalms as usual.

God is the Lord, Tone 8; Troparia: Feast (In the midst of the feast) x2; G: Great Martyr (As a liberator of captives); N: Feast (In the midst of the feast).

After each Kathisma, the Sessional hymns of the feast.

Polyeleos and Magnification of the Great Martyr: We magnify thee, O holy and victorious great martyr George, and we honor thy venerable sufferings, which thou didst endure for Christ. Psalm verse: Our God is refuge and strength, a helper in afflictions which mightily befall us.

All of the Sessional hymns of the Great Martyr (Afire with the burning love of the Master); G: Great Martyr (Zealously cultivating the seed); N: Feast (Standing in the Temple on the mid-feast – second sessional hymn after the Kathismata).

Hymns of Ascents, First Antiphon, Tone 4: From my youth.

Prokimenon of the Great Martyr, Tone 4: The righteous man shall flourish like a palm tree.

Matins Gospel: Luke 12:2-12 (§63).

Having beheld the resurrection x1; Psalm 50; G: Through the prayers of the passion-bearer George; N: Through the prayers of the Theotokos; Have mercy on me, O God; Sticheron of the Great Martyr in the Menaion (Today the whole world is enlightened). Save, O God, Thy people.

Canon: Feast (1^st Canon) 6 Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.

Great Martyr (1^st Canon) 4 Holy Great Martyr and Trophy-bearer George, pray to God for us.

Feast (2nd Canon) 4 Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.

Irmos: When Israel of old traversed the gulf of the Red Sea (sung twice).

Katavasia: Thou didst make the sea a wall.

After Ode 3, Kontakion (Cultivated by God) and Ikos of the Great Martyr; Sessional hymn of the Great Martyr (Manfully contending in every manner of piety); G/N: Feast (Thou, at Mid-feast, didst stand in the temple's court).

After Ode 6, Kontakion (In the midst of the Judaic feast) and Ikos of the Feast.

At Ode 9, we do not sing More Honorable; but instead we immediately begin the Irmos of the Ninth Ode (When Christ, the chief Cornerstone).

Exapostilaria: Feast (O Thou that hast the wine bowl of gifts); G: Great Martyr (Springtime hath shone forth); N: Feast (O Thou that hast the wine bowl of gifts).

Praises, Tone 4, on 6: Feast, on 3 (The Divine Wisdom, Might, and Peace); Great Martyr 3 (Come, all ye who have celebrated); G: Great Martyr (Let the eye-lids of men assent); N: Feast (Having been enlightened by the Resurrection). After the Great Doxology, Troparia: Great Martyr (As a liberator of captives); G/N: Feast (In the midst of the feast); the two remaining Litanies. The Resurrectional Dismissal; First Hour.

Hours: Troparion: Feast (In the midst of the feast) G: Great Martyr; Kontakion: Great Martyr & Feast (In the midst of the Judaic feast), alternating.

Liturgy: The beginning, as on St. Thomas Sunday.

Beatitudes on 8, First Canon of the Feast: 4, from Ode 3; Great Martyr: 4, from Ode 6.

After the entrance: Troparion of the Feast (In the midst of the feast); Great Martyr; G: Kontakion of the Great Martyr; N: Kontakion: Feast (In the midst of the Judaic feast).

Prokimenon, Tone 3: Great is our Lord, and great is His strength. & Tone 7: The righteous man shall be glad in the Lord.

Epistle: Acts 14:6-18 (§34); Acts 12:1-11 (§ 29).

Alleluia, Tone 1 & Tone 4.

Gospel: John 7:14-30 (§26); John 15:17-16:2 (§52).

Instead of It is truly meet, we sing the Irmos of the ninth Ode of the second canon of the feast (Virginity is alien to mothers).

Communion Hymn: He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood abideth in Me and I in him, saith the Lord. & In everlasting remembrance shall the righteous be.

And the rest as on St. Thomas Sunday.

There is a Cross procession to a well or a spring, and then the lesser blessing of the waters.